Thursday, October 13, 2011

As I mentioned in some of my previous posts, moving our office to Arnaiz Avenue brought along the challenge of finding decent and affordable spots to eat, after leaving the comfort of Palanca street.. Our home for Four years. Good thing there were a few of the old reliables nearby, such as Max's, Pancake House, and The Old Spaghetti House, but apart from that, I found some fantastic places out of the ordinary, such as Kitch Cafe and Ukkokei Ramen Ron.

What I haven't told you about, was the very first place I had lunch at during my first day at my new office, which was a restaurant at the lower floor of Makati Cinema Square, called "Aida's Chicken".

I never told you guys about it because of two reasons: The first being I hated what I ordered, and the second is because I forgot to take pictures, mainly because my camera phone was crappy back then (Thank you Samsung for bringing to the world the Galaxy S2!).

For my first meal there with my giant Joel and his CG team, I ordered the Adobong Pata rice meal (P145), and I didn't like it at all. In fact, I hated it so much, I ended up stepping out and ordering from one of those 25 Peso Siomai stall in front of them, and eating it with my rice instead.

So after that experience, everytime someone from the office would rave about Aida's Chicken, I would continue to be baffled. One time my office mate Naomi asked if I wanted to go with them to Aida's Chicken for lunch, and I politely declined, saying I didn't like the food. She said it was easily among the best Chicken Inasal she had ever tried. I told her I didn't try their inasal, I tried their Adobong Pata.

For those who don't speak tagalog, she basically called me an idiot for not trying their chicken inasal dish, which is why the place has the word "CHICKEN" in their name in the first place. She ended her statement with, "I thought you were supposed to be a "Blogger".

So there I was, standing there, humbled by my office mate who questioned my capacity as a food blogger.. but the funny part about it was, she was totally right. So the next time Naomi and the rest of the gang asked if I wanted to go with them to Aida's she was pretty surprised when I simply replied, "Game".

Monday, October 10, 2011

One day, I was at home with Rina minding my own business when my Cousin Paolo tweeted me a picture of a Sausage burger that looked pretty bad ass. He said he wasn't sure what the name of the place was, but wanted to schedule a lunch there with Rina and I. Kuya Paolo has been with me in numerous food trips, including John & Yoko, Ukkokei and most recently, Kanzhu, and we always have a blast when we go on food trips so I was really Gung Ho about going to try this place with him.

That following week, my friend Rain showed me an article on the net about a place that featured Pork Sausage Burgers instead of your usual 100% beef patties called "Size Matters". I looked back at all my clues, put two and two together and realized that this was the place Paolo was talking about (Watching all those episodes of "Murder She Wrote" finally paid off). Since Rina's doctor is in Quezon City, a place that I've mentioned I don't frequent anymore, I decided that every time we go, we'd try a restaurant there. The first one was Kanzhu, then next on our list would be Size Matters. Our next visit to the doctor was the following Saturday, so I accepted the fact that I wouldn't be trying the sausage patty burger until another week.

But as it turned out, the food gods had a plan for me.

Just like it was ripped from a food version of the movie, "Serendipity", The popular group buying site "Groupon Philippines decided to unleash a "Size Matters: Flame Grilled Sausage Burgers" Promo in their site (Some things are just truly meant to be)! As you can imagine, I snapped it up immediately without a second thought. Unfortunately, the voucher for my order arrived sometime within the next day, and I wasn't able to check it right away. So by the time Rina made reservations (You need to give the voucher number to make reservations), their Saturday was already fully booked.

Not willing to wait another week, I told Rina to make the reservation for Sunday. By hook or by crook, I was going to try those sausage burgers (All great love stories have obstacles.. It's like "Size Matters" was the "Princess" and I was the "Stable Boy").

Wednesday, October 5, 2011

It was a rainy Saturday morning when Rina and I drove to Quezon City for her doctor's appointment. I don't go to QC very much anymore.. which is sad because I spent four years living in my grandfather's house before moving to our place in Antipolo. We lived near the Timog-Tomas Morato area, and even back then, it was lined with a number of restaurants, with the more popular ones being Mario's, Dulcinea, and Anabel's.

Nowadays, the area is loaded with an eclectic selection of restaurants to choose from. It's a little bit annoying knowing that there are hundreds of these wonderful restaurants for me to try, but most of them weren't there when I was living just a few blocks away from them.

One such restaurant, is Kanzhu Hand Pulled Noodles. I hadn't been to that area since my visit to Penpen, so I was fortunate to find out about this restaurant from the Group Buying site, CashCashPinoy.

Forgive me for sharing yet another adventure from a Chinese restaurant, but I wanted to use my voucher before it expired.

Rina is on her 39th week of pregnancy, so we're expecting the Pickiest Little Eater any day soon. The birth of my daughter Rain will undoubtedly open a brand new chapter in my life that my wife and I are looking forward to. This is more exciting than the first time I went to Spiral Buffet, or when I returned to Harbor City in Cebu. This level of excitement is in a league of its own.

I honestly have no clue when or how long I'll be gone, but I wouldn't be surprised if I find ways to keep posting reviews even from the hospital (I heard there are some great restaurants within the vicinity of Medical City hehe) or something.

After doing this for more than a year, I can't imagine NOT blogging about food. True there are times that I get lazy to write, but the moment I get going, and when I get comments on a post or in my Facebook fan page, it just really reaffirms my love for food blogging.

I have great plans for this blog, which are slowly being set into motion to make it even bigger and better, with the capabilities to reach an even wider audience. I can't really divulge anything because nothing is final yet, but I honestly do hope everything me and my friends are working on pushes through. Hopefully by early next year, my little "project" shall be revealed. Please stay tuned for that :)

Please don't get this post wrong. I know it may sound like it, but I'm not saying goodbye. In fact, I'm going to be posting a new restaurant adventure with in the next couple of days. I'm just saying that Rina is giving birth soon, and I'll be gone for awhile.. Try not to miss me so much hehe..

Thanks for everything guys! Please do pray for the safe delivery of our Baby Rain, as well as the health of Rina.. and as for being first time parents.. Wish us both luck!

I've got a lot of eating left to do, so ya'll can't get rid of me just yet!